Need to make a decison about the seats in my BJ74...all options on the table

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deepseacruiser

10 Year 15 Year
Joined
Jun 19, 2010
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Location
San Diego, CA
So within the past 3 months I have made my BJ74 my DD. In that time the biggerst shortcoming seems to be the comfort of the ride due to the seats, crappy roads in SD and Im sure in some part to the leaf springs up front. (already replaced)

I currently have the suspension seats. The seat foam is pretty well shot and the fabric is torn as well.

Options I am considering.

Take seats to pholstery shop near or across the border to have the seats re-foamed and wrapped in canvas

Replace just the seats and keep the suspension lower with a fabricated bracket (need to find narrow enough seats to fit)

Sell/Trade the whole seat assembly for something different.

I am also open to a trade of my PTO winch plus seats for seats in better condition

Lastly I want to start looking into changing the front end to coils/shocks vice leaf spring.


Looking for any advice or offers for trade out there.

Thank you guys
 
Deep S
Have you checked to determine if new OEM foam is available? I got new Toyota foam for my HZJ-73 seat and it is great!
Might also consider upgrading to newer seats. The seat is my new truck is a big improvement over the seat in BJ-74 I used to have.
Good luck
Peter
 
Yeah the foam never was that great in that era to begin with. Personal preference. I have the original but luckily it has not torn too much. But I did add heated seats elements to it and it is great. Love it when the top is off on those cool mornings
 
I would look at trying to rebuild the suspension seats. I have just removed a set of Turbo factory seats from
my BJ74 for the suspension set. WOW! The only other seats I've got that equal in comfort are Recaro, and they
aren't cheap!! My suspension seats I just installed are really fantastic, so try Spectre Specter Off-Road, Land Cruiser Parts and Accessories,
and look for replacement foam. There must be a couple of thousand upholstery shops in Cali that would have
foam and the ability to make custom, if that doesn't work.
 
I didn't see 70 Series Foam on the SOR site, but I guess you got the 60 Series Foam and it fit great under the stock upholstery?
or did you re-upholster?
 
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It is half that on the SOR site, for a pair of 60 Series seat bottoms.
My upholstery is in decent shape. Just the foam seems to be shot, or should I say flattish and stiff.
 
Dprio34 said:
I didn't see 70 Series Foam on the SOR site, but I guess you got the 60 Series Foam and it fit great under the stock upholstery?
or did you re-upholster?
Click to expand...

I didn't have to reupholster any of my seats. I have noticed SOR has pretty unreasonable pricing for some of the upholstery parts.
A search through the 60 and 70 forums should come up with other solutions. I've seen a couple of guys who get local upholstery
shops to re-create factory foam for reasonable prices. Funny how the fabric doesn't seem to be the big cost.
 
It can't be hard at all for a local shop to re-foam to a reasonable degree of satisfaction.

@cruiserpilot did you say you are going to rebuild the suspension seat mechanism itself? If so, I'd love to know your process. Mine are getting creaky and struggling to handle the weight of some of my, erm, passengers...
 
@cruiserpilot did you say you are going to rebuild the suspension seat mechanism itself? If so, I'd love to know your process. Mine are getting creaky and struggling to handle the weight of some of my, erm, passengers...[/QUOTE]

My seats are perfect. The mechanism is fairly simple as far as I could tell. To do anything I think just clean it and
make sure it's not gummed up or rusted. I should have taken a pic of the mechanism when I had it out but I didn't.
 
If you buy new foam I doubt that it will be 1986 foam. Lots of good aftermarket foam in Australia but I don't know about the freight cost. I bought a rebuilt seat with aftermarket foam and covering and its as good ,maybe better than the original.
Or just make some brackets and put another type of seat in.

$_20.JPG
 
If you buy new foam I doubt that it will be 1986 foam. Lots of good aftermarket foam in Australia but I don't know about the freight cost. I bought a rebuilt seat with aftermarket foam and covering and its as good ,maybe better than the original.
Or just make some brackets and put another type of seat in.

$_20.JPG
 
@cruiserpilot so you took apart the damper? I’ve cleaned and lubricated everything but I think the damper is what’s actually worn out..
 
Dprio34 said:
@roscoFJ73, what Vendor in Australia did you use for foam and cover?
Click to expand...

I was lucky enough to find a wrecker who had been a motor trimmer in a previous life and he had a drivers seat he had rebuilt from a mine vehicle. It was rough and he welded parts of the broken frame together and put new foam and vinyl on it but sold it cheap because the frame had been welded a few times. Its lasted with me sitting on it for 4 years.
I have seen the foam on ebay a few times. I don't know where the vinyl comes from but you could probably get it from partsouq.
These kind of items can be hard to track down as the resellers keep their suppliers close to their chest.
I contacted the seller of that foam in the pic and asked if would be interested in sending it overseas but he went silent after that.
Ill see if I can track down another source.

I found this company, they seem to be saying they sells the components you need.
Products
 
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These look nice but I bet they are not cheap, supposedly a straight bolt on for 75/79 series

seats r us

26042011%20031.JPG
 
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